The Singer @ Traverse Theatre
Cora Bissett's latest gig theatre production blends song, spoken word, sign language and a strong storyline into a joyous, jubilant whole
There are three ways to speak: with your voice, your hands and your heart. Cora Bissett's The Singer is red-blooded heart.
The terrain is familiar. Faded singer Andy (Dylan Wood), busking from the Glasgow gutter, is searching for one last redemptive shot at fame. After a chance meeting with Deaf artist Joe (Jamie Rea), both their lives change forever. The storyline, though, is the supporting act to the music, scored by KT Tunstall, and the body politic.
This is a jubilant show about how music connects us, and how it makes us feel. Joe interprets music through his body, wearing a SUBPAC tactile audio system to physically feel basslines as he sings with his hands. This is something we all try during the show, when Rea invites us to join the Deaf choir. Nobody shies away. We sign one of many original songs by Tunstall. To a frustrated Joe, the choir is a creative ceiling.
Narrator 'oracles' Hannah Jarrett-Scott and Petre Dobre, often sitting on high in armchairs, deliver bone-achingly funny lines throughout, punctured with acerbic social and political commentary. Life on the fourteenth floor of a tower block, the underfunding and closure of Deaf centres, London music producers and Glasgow Southside hipsters all get caught in their torchlights, and both are superb as they shapeshift through different characters and supporting roles.
The friendship between Andy and Joe is unlikely, but works; clichés can be still be true. Each holds something, as men and creatives, that the other needs, unknowingly so at first. Andy initially interprets Joe's unique musicality as his one-way ticket back to fame and they form a songwriting partnership. With fame once again at the door, he reverts back to type and ditches Joe. Naked ambition has a habit of backfiring.
The four-strong cast are a true creative force. The performance is a blend of spoken word, sign language and creative captions. 'Hearies', along with those who are Deaf, partially Deaf or hard of hearing all sit as one and stand as one to give the stellar cast a long ovation. Pure joy.
The Singer, Traverse (Traverse 1), until 30 Aug (not 24), various times, £5.50-£27.50; touring to His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, 9-12 Sep; Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, 15-19 Sep; Dundee Rep, 23-26 Sep